The Internet has become a ubiquitous source of information and resources, allowing millions of people around the world to easily exchange information and communications. For example, web sites accessible over the Internet often provide a wide variety of information and content. By publishing content on a web site, authors can share their works with audiences around the world, while retailers can introduce their products to countless potential new customers. Internet users can also exchange electronic communications in the form of e-mail, instant messages and other types of messages. These communications are facilitated by communication servers, which are able to send and receive messages over the Internet.
Each device connected to the Internet must have at least one Internet protocol (IP) address. For example, a server hosting a web site or an Internet communication service must have an IP address. An example IP address is 12.10.38.33. An IP address is a unique number, similar in concept to a telephone number, used by devices to refer to each other when sending information through the Internet. This allows machines passing the information onwards on behalf of the sender to know the intended destination.
IP addresses, however, are difficult to remember and are not descriptive of the Internet locations to which they correspond, Accordingly, IP addresses may be associated with a domain name that may be used instead of an IP address to direct traffic to a network location. Domain names are much easier to remember and use than their corresponding IP addresses. For example, instead of using various IP addresses to refer to various locations in a company's network, the company may purchase the domain name “company.com.” In this case, the company's website may reside at www.company.com, while employees of the company may be given email addresses having this domain name (e.g., user@company.com).
In order to translate a domain name into its corresponding IP addresses, a Domain Name Service (“DNS”) must be utilized. The DNS includes a system of servers (referred to as DNS servers or name servers) that maintain a database for resolving domain names and IP addresses. For example, an attempt to access “www.company.com” may be directed by the DNS to the IP address 12.10.38.33. This conversion allows users to connect to remote computers by inputting domain names instead of IP addresses. Many types of information can be stored in a DNS record, and DNS provides physical locations (i.e., IP addresses) associated with each domain name. Further, the DNS records may list the mail exchange servers and instant messaging servers for each domain. In sum, DNS facilitates access to information and services associated with a given domain name by providing the IP addresses of devices providing such domain services.
Domain names are often company trademarks, personal names or short phrases concatenated with an extension (e.g., .com, .net, org, us, .biz, etc.). For example, businesses and other entities often obtain custom domain names incorporating their trademarks. Individuals may also obtain custom domains (e.g., johnsmith.com). To obtain ownership and control over an Internet domain name, users must interact with a registry accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN). If a requested domain name is available, the user may purchase the name and may proceed, for example, in creating a web site or setting up domain e-mail.
As part of this domain set-up, the user must specify the IP addresses or host names associated with the domain for publishing in the domain's DNS record. As previously mentioned, the DNS record lists IP addresses associated with various services offered by the domain. Alternately, the DNS record may list host names for the services. For example, a DNS record may include a Mail eXchange record (also referred to as a MX record). The MX record maps a domain name to a list of mail exchange servers for that domain. Similarly, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) related-record may map to services such as instant messaging services for a domain. As known to those skilled in the art, SIP related DNS records may include SRV and NAPTR records. A DNS record may include an entry for a web page/web site for the domain (also known as an ARecord). A DNS entry may also include a Text record where any arbitrary text may be placed. Importantly, the DNS record associated with a domain name, while accessible to the public, generally is only editable at the direction of the entity in control of the domain (e.g., the domain owner).
Though a domain owner may control the various IP addresses/host names listed in a DNS record, the owner need not control the devices residing at these addresses. For example, a domain owner may outsource the hosting of web pages within the domain. In this example, network-hosting services may be provided by a third party who owns a server connected to the Internet. The server may provide a web site having the domain name, and the domain's DNS record may point requests for this web site to the third party's server. By allowing a third party to host web pages for the domain, the domain owner need not incur the costs of server ownership, setup and initiation.
While outsourcing of network-services is well known in the art, there are currently inadequate techniques in which a domain owner may capitalize on their domain ownership when services are hosted. For example, domain owners today typically must pay hosting services for outsourcing of network services. The hosting fees traditionally cover expenses such as server maintenance and service set-up costs. In this example, the domain owner is essentially “renting” server space. To recoup the hosting fees, the domain owner may seek to generate revenue by, for example, selling goods on their web site, selling advertisements on a web site or by charging users to use the domain services. These revenue-generating activities may be burdensome, infeasible or undesirable for a domain owner. For example, a small non-profit organization may not want to charge for access, may have nothing to sell and may not receive enough web traffic for advertisements to be a feasible revenue source. Accordingly, if the small organization wished to provide a web site or to provide its members email and instant messaging services, the organization may not be able to afford these services. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, a large number of domain owners may find it difficult to generate revenue from their domain, and these owners may not be able to afford the costs associated with outsourcing the hosting of various network-based services.